The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), working with several other groups, launched a project to develop a "common core" of standards that, if adopted by the states, would give a set of national standards in reading and mathematics with other subjects to come later. The author says that national standards are not a new idea, but any attempt to create and implement them will require an enormous amount of effort. This article takes a closer look at the issues surrounding the development and adoption of common education standards in the United States. (Contains 1 figure.)